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Mad Rock Ultra Light

CARABINERS ARE THE one piece of climbing gear you can never have enough of. Paradoxically, like socks and beer, they vanish as mysteriously as if they’d been put on a log raft and sent down the Amazon—for every two carabiners I acquire, one runs off. Perhaps you’ve seen them? They are aluminum, shaped like teardrops, although some are oval or shaped like the letter D?

I would go bust trying to keep myself in snap links if not for good, affordable biners like the new Mad Rock Ultra Light. The 32-gram carabiner isn’t one of those super-small, hyper-light jobs. Nor is it a big racking biner. It’s in-between. Just big enough to grab and easily clip, small enough to keep its weight and bulk down. Use it on either end of a draw or sling and to perform any of the other zillion tasks assigned to non-locking drones.

In hand, it is like a smaller version of one of my favorite designs, the Wild Country Helium, except it costs about half as much. Can’t argue with that. The wire gate clips well and has just enough clearance not to trap a finger. The CE-certified Ultra Light is also available in a five-inch Spectra draw set-up for $11.95. Each carabiner is pull tested to 40 percent of its rated strength in major axis.

—DR

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